


Close Encounters of the Socially Inept

by Kinkajou



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: Emotional Baggage, F/F, Teen Romance, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-13
Updated: 2013-11-13
Packaged: 2018-01-01 09:48:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1043391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kinkajou/pseuds/Kinkajou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mukuro's out of her depth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Close Encounters of the Socially Inept

**Author's Note:**

  * For [overthetiber](https://archiveofourown.org/users/overthetiber/gifts).



“Do you know anything about the latest suspicious events in Hope’s Peak Academy?” The reporter had thrust a microphone in Mukuro’s face, but wasn’t giving her any chances her many chances to answer. “The rumors that the music room murder wasn’t the work of a stranger? Have you heard the complaints about allowing potential criminals in?”

Mukuro didn’t give him any kind of reaction, not that it made him change his mind. She wondered if the reporter could have some special training of his own, judging by the way he intercepted her attempts to get away—or if she just was having a very bad day.

“Where does a student accused of being part of a terrorist group fit in this pattern? Are you a suspect of anything?”

So that’s what he was aiming for in the first place. Mukuro had thought she’d be so lucky as not to hear that one again. It made her sick to her stomach.

A part of her mind had already calculated the most efficient way to kill the reporter—and the cameraman too, before he could raise the alarm. The three of them were standing on the street, close enough to Hope’s Peak so the building would show up on the background, with plenty of people coming and going at this hour, but if she told this guy she’d tell him whatever he wanted to hear, he’d probably lower his guard down enough for—except it wasn’t worth it. That wasn’t a reason good enough to take anybody’s life, no matter how obnoxious, and she wasn’t really like that. She hoped.

Another part of her mind calmly noted a set of steps hurriedly going their way: a young female. Probably hurrying to school- Where Mukuro was supposed to be as well. Would the reporter let her go if she told him the class was going to start any time now? Or would he just press her further?

An arm fell around Mukuro’s shoulders. That girl running up to them hadn’t gone straight to school after all. Sayaka Maizono, of all people, hugged Mukuro, throwing an arm between her and the camera.

“You’re scaring her!” Maizono did the indignant friend pretty well. “Can’t you see she’s upset?”

Before Maizono arrived, it would’ve been very hard for anybody to think that. But her act had transformed Mukuro from a cold young woman emotionlessly staring down serious accusations to a shocked teenager cowering in her friend’s arms. The reporter stepped back, signaling the camera guy to do the same. No point in looking like the bad guys.

Mukuro would’ve let it like that if these guys weren’t about to walk away with half a minute of her looking like a potential suspect. She kicked the camera so fast the guy was still staring at his empty hands as it collided on the street.

“Nobody saw that?” The reporter looked all around the street, where everyone went on their business like usual.

“I saw him dropping it!” Maizono grabbed Mukuro’s hand and both of them ran to the school. That was the skill at lying a spy could use.

When they made it through the still-open gates of the Academy, Maizono stopped to breathe out and Mukuro, letting go of her hand, stumbled back against the wall.

“Are you okay?” Maizono turned to look at Mukuro with concern that looked authentic. Mukuro had to look away.

“It’s nothing. I wasn’t expecting that, is all.”

“You look pale.” Maizono halfway lifted a hand as if to touch Mukuro’s forehead, but she thought better of it.

“I can go to the nurse’s on my own.” To make her point clear, Mukuro started walking. She heard Maizono turning around and heading class. That was a bit of a relief, but enough. Mukuro had thought she was over the time she made the rounds on the news. First they liked her well enough, being a reasonably cute child with a tragic story, and covered her with disgustingly gooey fake sympathy while missing the point of anything she’d gone through. That'd gotten old soon, though, and the news played up the killer-in-sheep's-clothing angle. Suddenly, she wasn’t sympathetic at all and people should be concerned she came close to their children. Luckily, Hope’s Peak invested a lot of money preserving its reputation, which meant only fringe weirdos like that one looked at its students too closely, no matter how attractive the rewards. A weirdo just as fringe had tried to pin the Genocider Syo murders on Mukuro some time ago, but the whole thing dissolved as people mocked how ridiculous it was to think Syo could be a high-school student. Mukuro had managed to convince herself she didn’t care about having the judging eye of the public permanently fixed up on her, but this one encounter had brought it all over again.

Mukuro stopped short on her way to her next class, having stubbornly rejected the nurse’s office. If somebody knew about the public eye, that was Maizono. Maybe that had made her sympathetic. Or maybe she held a deep-seated hate for the yellow press.

In any case, Maizono had helped her. Which meant Mukuro owed her. Almost immediately, she could hear her sister chiding her for it. Did Mukuro really have to take every single thing so seriously? Why couldn’t she just take whatever people gave her without a second thought? Well, maybe a thought of how to take more advantage of them in the future.

Honestly, Mukuro wasn’t sure what was her problem, but she wouldn’t have peace until she didn’t have that niggling feeling of being in somebody else’s debt.

 

At first, Mukuro thought Maizono had already left home—or wherever she went—but after a closer look, she was just coming around the Biology lab. It wasn’t until Maizono stood there staring at Mukuro with a bit of surprise that she realized how silly the whole thing was, though.

“You helped me out today,” Mukuro said. Nope, still silly.

Maizono relaxed almost imperceptibly; she’d probably thought there was something wrong with Mukuro after the morning’s shock. Mukuro’s training helpfully reminded her that Maizono had lowered her guard and now was the optimal moment to strike at her, if necessary. Mukuro tuned it out as usual.

“I’m walking with you. Just in case. If you don’t mind, that is.”

Maizono smiled. “Sure. Let’s go.”

They made it to the train station faster than Mukuro expected, her debt still in place.

“You know, Maizono turned to look at Mukuro, “if you were a guy, I’d think you had a crush on me. I mean, who makes that kind of excuse to follow a girl around?”

Mukuro froze. So that was the sort-of-off feeling she’d ignored from the beginning.

“I’m just teasing you. I get a lot of letter from fangirls, that’s all. Some may be just joking, but aren’t.

And like that, the awkwardness was deflated, the conversation moved safely away from Mukuro. Maizono didn’t ask why Mukuro was still walking with her the next day, or the next one, or the next week. Either she didn’t mind it or she was too polite to complain and determined to wait for Mukuro’s interest to fade.

 _And you’re going to keep following her like a lost puppy until she starts finding excuses_ Her sister’s voice reappeared a couple of times, but Mukuro sent it back to its place.

The second weekend, Maizono called when Mukuro was training. She wanted to ask if Mukuro wanted to go out with Maizono’s idol friends. Well, how about that. It was probably just to be nice.

It took almost a whole day for Mukuro to realize the blatantly obvious, something she wasn’t proud of. It wasn’t until she was deciding what to make for lunch next day that her mind clicked: Maizono had never asked any friends from school to meet her bandmates. It was like being asked to meet somebody’s parents! Only more serious. Mukuro’s own parents had left her forever unimpressed with the parental subject.

For a single moment, she wanted to get the phone and call Maizono and tell her she she’d been out all day but she’d go meet her friends next time. If there was a next time. But that was too weird, so Mukuro went back to the matter of lunch.

The next time she saw Maizono, Mukuro was almost too distracted thinking she should mention that call, or let her know she’d gotten her message after all, or reassure herself she hadn’t hallucinated the whole deal, it took a fraction of a second longer than usual for her conscious mind to notice they were being followed. Mukuro kicked herself mentally as a warning for the future and appraised the stalker. It definitely wasn’t a coincidence; he was too much of an amateur to hide his intentions. Mukuro told her discovery in a whisper. Maizono took it perfectly in stride, only frowning as she stopped near a shop window to catch the stalker’s reflection. Mukuro wasn’t sure if that was cool or just weird. In any case, she was too off the weird scale to judge.

The stalker, though, was pretty pathetic to get caught with a trick like that. Mukuro almost felt bad for him.

“That guy,” Maizono said. “He tried to get past security a couple of times. I guess he decided to try his luck when security wasn’t there.”

“I can go tell him to get lost. Or I can pretend to leave and walk up to him from his back.”

Maizono smiled. “Yes, do that one.”

“You’ll be left walking alone a moment, though. Sure you’re not scared?”

“Not as long as you make sure to scare him.”

Definitely weird.

When they reached the corner, they pretended to say goodbye and Mukuro glued herself to the shadows ad Maizono went on. Unsurprisingly, a rank amateur like him didn’t even thought of checking the other girl had left the way she seemed to. He didn’t even look to the sides. Not that he would’ve managed to see Mukuro in time, but one could at least bother trying. As things were, he only found out what was going on when Mukuro grabbed his arm, and then he almost had a heart attack on the spot. If he wasn’t a creep, Mukuro would feel bad about picking up on him.

Maizono stood not far from them, smiling in the kind of slightly too-practiced way Mukuro supposed she did for the audience. “Don’t make my girlfriend get mad at you. She’s scary.”

Judging by the stalker’s pulse, he was likely to faint. “Don’t you want to call the cops?” Mukuro said.

“Why for? It’s not like they’ll find the body.”

The stalker made a funny noise in the back of his throat and tugged at his arm like he didn’t mind doing the trapped-coyote thing and leave it hanging from Mukuro’s grip. Well, since Maizono didn’t seem to care, neither did Mukuro. She opened her hand, allowing the stalker to disappear from sight. Maizono watched him go with a pleased look.

“You’re kinda weird,” Mukuro said, “and you’re gonna miss your train.”

 

If Mukuro had ever owed anything to Maizono, she’d already repayed it. So you couldn’t expect Mukuro to follow Maizono around yet again. Everybody should be happier now. Really. Maizono probably was. Mukuro walked very slowly to the main gates, stopping as often as she could along the way, so she wouldn’t accidentally stumble over Maizono. That should be less awkward.

Except Maizono was still standing there well after she should’ve left. Her eyes stopped on Mukuro as if she’d been waiting for her all along. Maizono breathed out in relief.

“I was starting to think you—wouldn’t show up.” Didn’t want to show up, she meant. But it was true, technically. Wasn’t it?

“Everything’s fine—Sayaka.” Mukuro tried to slip her first name out naturally, but it did show she’d hesitated for a moment. It didn’t matter now. Sayaka wasn’t mad at her or anything. She seemed rather happy, actually.

What was she happy about?

Mukuro grabbed Sayaka’s arm and ran. “You still have practice today!”

“I’ve never been late. Once’s fine.”

“I have plotted a course that’ll take us to the train station in half the usual time—”

“Since when?”

“Since now. But it requires trespassing on private property multiple times. Maybe jaywalking.”

The only incident was the presence of a large dog Mukuro couldn’t have planned for. All in all, pretty good, and they made it to the station before the train. At first, Mukuro thought Sayaka was hanging from her neck because she was tired after running so hard, but her heart-rate wasn’t that high.

“What’s wrong?”

“Wrong? I’m hugging you. People like hugging.” Sayaka examined her. “Do you?”

“I guess.” Mukuro was way too aware of the amount of people walking by the station. Most had better things to do than paying attention to them, but they were still right there in the open.

“And kissing?”

“I guess.”

Sayaka mashed her lips gracelessly against Mukuro’s just as the train arrived.

“I don’t think you’re scary, by the way. See you!”

Mukuro raised a hand awkwardly, even more conscious of the dozens of people seeing them.

“But you’re still weird,” she whispered to herself.


End file.
